Well, this new plate-scraping compost bin doodly is not really doing the job. It isn’t the fault of the doodly itself, it is that the vision and proposed procedures for using it do not fit in with KW-style composting.

Despite my Black Thumb, I have been a dedicated composter for many years in multiple places. That is, I used to compost in multiple places. We haven’t composted at the moomincabin since *bear* sightings began occurring with increasing frequency (or so it seemed). We used to schlep compost over to my [late] uncle’s heap in a gallon-sized ice cream tub. Why we started our own compost heap, I do not know but The Commander was still vibrantly alive at that time and I’m sure she had some kind of plan, whether acted upon or not.

One of my favorite moominbeach composting memories was the time the beach urchins and I stopped to visit the Cfam grandparents at Houghton Lake on the way up to the beach. I inadvertently managed to get the grandparents going on retirement accounts… Seven-year-old Liz grabbed me and whispered directly into my ear, “Change the talk, Mom!” Indeed. I don’t know what I said to change the talk, but change it did. The grandparents swung into action, rummaged through the refrigerator(s) and handed me a rotten green pepper and cucumber that someone (maybe me) had left there a while back. “Here, take these!” It was a fair trade, considering I had left a rusty old rake, shoe boxes, and old film canisters with them. I transported the rotten veggies up to the moominbeach and promptly added them to my uncle’s compost heap. (I absolutely understand how hard it is to be left with a bunch of food that you aren’t going to use! And I miss my parents-in-law!)

Anyway, I am a dedicated composter and so, when the Planet Ann Arbor issued these new doodlys for composting ALL food, including, uh, meat, I was excited. But I don’t think it’s going to work for me. I do not put meat scraps in my compost heap and I never will (the GG has been known to sneak little scraps of pepperoni in there and I look the other way). This doodly is supposed to save your compost until you put it into your yard-waste composting bin. That might work for folks who are also putting a lot of veggie scraps into the doodly. Lettuce and stuff. Me? I only put meat / dairy scraps and the like in there. Chicken bones and fish skins and old cheese? Stinky!!! My gag reflex went full-tilt boogie when I took this doodly out to dump it the other day. Just a bit of icky smelly stuff on the bottom. Yuck. It would probably be less gross if it were mixed in with a bunch of veggie debris (which almost never grosses me out) but I put that in my own compost heap, roight?

This could still work but I’ll have to make my own rules (which is okay, isn’t it?). I will refrigerate or even freeze (in ziplock bags) icky table scraps. When there are enough leaves and other yard debris in the compost cart (I can’t fit all of that stuff in my compost heap) to “absorb” icky table scraps, I will throw my baggie of table scraps into it. When there is not enough of that stuff to absorb it, I will throw it in the garbage or freeze it… Hey, I have known two people in my life who froze the icky parts of their garbage. One of them was Radical Betty. The ziplock bag industry should be very happy to hear this. Maybe they will give me a discount?

Anyway, I am not sure if I will keep this doodly or not. I really don’t want a whole lot of random stuff on my brand-new quarts quartz (damn auto-correct) countertops (which I am VERY happy with, by the way).

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2014 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.